If you look at historical cumulative CO2 emissions: the US utterly dominates, with (Western) Europe coming in second place. It’s only in the past few years that

If you look at historical cumulative CO2 emissions: the US utterly dominates, with (Western) Europe coming in second place. It’s only in the past few years that other countries begin to catch up. At the time these early climate studies were done, the US and its European allies had the wealth to consume and burn that oil; we also had the wealth and scientific capability to develop lower-emitting technologies. We, as a society, chose not to do either of those things. We made that decision during a time when it might have made a huge difference to our lives today. This decision was largely influenced by the actions of US non-state-owned oil companies, who were instrumental in preventing such policy decisions via lobbying, withholding evidence, and deliberate strategies to muddy the debate by funding climate denial PR. I’m sure the state-owned oil companies of Venezuela and the USSR/Russia deserve some blame as well for pumping and selling the oil (mostly to the West where our economies burned it), but I think pinning the blame right here in the US is pretty accurate. PS This is the second or third company in this thread that tries to blame the deeply unethical actions of these oil companies on “foreign state-owned oil companies” and it’s such a specific and bizarre defense that I tend to wonder if some Exxon-funded PR office has been pushing that line.